Earth Share of Washington

Get Outside, Have Fun and Do Good: Special Events Section

The weather is starting to cooperate with your desire to get out and have some fun this Summer, but what should you do and where should you go? Earth Share of Washington has selected a few of our favorite events that are not only a total blast, but help support local environmental groups in the process. For a more complete list of Summer activities see http://www.esw.org/events

TrailsFest serves up a jam-packed day of outdoor adventure
Date: Saturday, July 19
Time: 9am - 4pm
Location: Rattlesnake Lake, North Bend
www.trailsfest.org

Presented by Washington Trails Association, TrailsFest is a hands-on event for all ages, providing families and other adventurers with a fun and safe environment to explore the outdoors. This outdoor extravaganza features clinics on everything from wilderness first aid to hiking with kids to backcountry cooking. Attendees can take a guided hike, tie a fly on, climb a rock wall, try out a new s’mores recipe, or hang out with packgoats. There will be dozens of exhibitors, including gear companies and outdoor groups.

Presenters include Craig Romano, author of Day Hiking - North Cascades, the author of Freezer Bag Cooking and Hilleberg the Tentmaker will present a clinic on smart packing and learn how to take less, still be comfortable and safe, and have lots more fun!

If you’ve got kids, don’t leave them at home. They can paddle a canoe, try their hand at fly-fishing, take a hike with goats, and sign songs around the campfire. There will also be a treasure hunt for children, and lots of kid-friendly booths and activities.

TrailsFest is your passport to the great outdoors this summer, and admission is free! Rattlesnake Lake is a fantastic setting for Trailsfest, with a small mountain to hike up, the lake for watersports, and plenty of room for other activities. Parking is tight so carpooling is strongly encouraged.

To get to TrailsFest, take I-90 to exit 32, then turn right on 436th Ave SE. Follow this road 2.7 miles to Rattlesnake Lake.

For more information on TrailsFest: (206) 625-1367 / www.trailsfest.org.

Summer Youth Challenge from EarthCorps
Date: Saturday, July 1 - Aug. 31
Location: All around the area
The grand finale is August 31st featuring a concert by Dave Matthews at the Gorge
www.earthcorps.org/volunteer.php

EarthCorps Summer Youth Challenge runs from July 1 - August 31 and the challenges youth and adult volunteers to give an astounding 25,000 hours of service in just two months! These environmental service projects in forests, streams and mountains benefit urban, suburban and wilderness areas.

Activities include volunteer events, a Mt. Rainier Ice Cream Hike, a Mt. Adams Climb, and concludes with a Matthews Concert, August 31 at The Gorge.

Getting muddy for Puget Sound: Bivalve Bash and Mud Run
Date: Saturday, July 19
Time: 10:00 am -9:00 pm
Location: On the water off Chuckanut Drive, between Mount Vernon and Bellingham

Bring your family, friends and neighbors and share some food and fun. Learn more about the Bivalve Bash. $5 Entrance Fee (Kids 6 and under free) Activities for all ages. Oyster shell sculptures, Mud Run, Kid’s Beach, great food, beer garden, local bands, dancing, contests and games. Scenic beach setting.

The Mud Monster is out there! Perhaps you’ve seen him lurking on your neighborhood beach, or crawling around a low-tide mudflat. Maybe you’ve spotted him at a community festival with his Mud Buddies. Or maybe you’ve seen a T.V. ad, spied a billboard or heard a radio spot promoting MudUp. These ads and the Mud Monster have a common message: We can all help make Puget Sound a healthier, happier place by getting involved. And MudUp.org is a great place to start.

So visit MudUp.org and check out the Activities Calendar. You’ll find kids events, walks, talks, celebrations and restoration projects all over the Sound.

Click here to watch the ads, see a few upcoming events and connect to the real MudUp!

Le Tour de Fat is Back - Bicycle Alliance
Date: Saturday, August 2, 2008
Time: 10:00 am - 7:00 pm (gather 10:15 am for 11:00 am bike parade; beer garden opens at 12:00 noon)
Location: Gas Works Park on north Lake Union - 2101 N Northlake Way, Seattle, WA 98103 (next to Burke-Gilman Trail between Meridian Ave N and Densmore Ave N in Wallingford, just east of Fremont)

Grab your bike and slip into your alter-ego because New Belgium’s philanthropic cycling circus Tour de Fat is coming back to Seattle. Costumes and decorated bikes reign supreme as the participants come for a casual ride, good music, good food and lots of great and varied entertainment, then stay, of course, for the beer. Amid the hoopla and fun, Tour de Fat also raises money for the Bicycle Alliance and Bike Works.
Admission to the Tour de Fat is free. Tell your friends, mark your calendar, and design your costume (optional… come as you like!).

Please come and join in to help support the Bike Alliance and Bike Works and have fun in the process. If interested in volunteering, please contact King Cushman to volunteer at: k-kcushman@comcast.net

Give Your Car the Summer Off

Many Earth Share partners are working with the City of Seattle to help reduce our carbon footprint as part of Seattle’s Climate Action Now (CAN). This summer, as a way to engage the public in a fun way, we are encouraging people to “Give Your Car the Summer Off.”

Transportation is one of the city’s biggest sources of climate pollution, and with gas prices climbing, there’s no better time to leave the car by the curb and choose a better way to go. Residents are encouraged to reduce their personal driving by 1,000 miles annually - about 20 miles a week. One thousand fewer miles will save 1,000 pounds of climate pollution.

As part of the campaign, the city has arranged some incentives including discounts at favorite recreational destinations. To find out how you can get involved, visit www.seattlecan.org, and take advantage of the following programs.

· Giving up the car: The city’s “Way to Go” program offers incentives for cutting a few car trips a week, commuting differently, and parking or selling your car.
· Heading to summer events: Seattle are partnering with many of the city’s summer events to encourage people to use transit, bike, walk, and carpool.
· Saving green by going green: Many of the city’s premier businesses and attractions such as Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Art Museum will be offering discounts to folks who don’t drive. By promising to take transit, carpool, walk or bike to one of the city’s business districts or community attractions, you’ll receive discounts or reduced admissions.
· Climate Action Now In-a-Box: This party-pack will contain everything you need to host a small neighborhood gathering where you can plan climate-friendly transportation projects.
· Car-Free Days: We’ll be opening up some of our city streets to bike and pedestrians.

Reducing climate pollution starts with you. Give your car the summer off.

EarthCorps Wins Alfred P. Sloan Award

EarthCorps was named a winner of the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility today, distinguishing the employer as a leading practitioner of workplace flexibility in Seattle and across the nation.

The Sloan Awards recognize organizations that are dedicated to making work “work” for both the employer and the employees. Representing employers of all sizes and all types, winners of this prestigious award not only offer excellent workplace flexibility practices, but they also use flexibility as a strategic business tool to enhance organizational effectiveness while also benefiting employees.

Congratulations to EarthCorps for earning this distinquished honor!

Local Solutions to Global Warming

With the state’s population expected to increase 15.6 percent by 2020 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), we know choices made in local land use and zoning plans will affect our quality of life. They will also affect climate emissions. Earth Share of Washington member group, Futurewise, spearheaded the successful effort to pass Local Solutions to Global Warming this past legislative session. The bill represented a critical first step toward addressing the impact of land use decisions on climate change, and positions Washington to make major policy improvements in the next few years. Here are examples of how the program will work on the ground.

State Level Action
The bill requires a report back to the legislature about additional reforms to the Growth Management Act to significantly reduce global warming pollution. Over the next year, Futurwise will work with cities, counties, and other stakeholders to ensure local governments are making smart choices that reduce driving and meet the growing demand for green, walkable communities.

Local Government
In Washington, we are lucky to have many local governments that acknowledge the important role they play in addressing climate change. From Auburn to Washougal, thirty-two of Washington’s cities have signed on to the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Local jurisdictions representing nearly 70% of the state’s population have committed to major reductions in their global warming pollution.

Spotlight on Tacoma
For the past year, the City of Tacoma has convened a Green Ribbon Climate Action Task Force to come up with recommendations for methods of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts. Meanwhile, Futurewise is working with local partners like Friends of Pierce County to encourage Tacoma to prioritize these actions so that it can both reduce its emissions while simultaneously enhancing the city’s livability.

Safe & Active Routes to School

By Ellen Aagaard - Bike Commuter Mom Extraordinaire

As a mother of young children, it’s hard to stay active. Toddler pace isn’t exactly a strenuous workout. Life revolves around nap schedules, school drop-off and pick-up times, extra-curricular activities, work, and meals. Fitting in daily exercise takes time - exactly what mothers lack.

Ellen Aagaard has found a way to get back into shape, and still be time efficient. A self-identified “bike commuter mom,” Ellen Aagaard started biking with her children to school once she received a bike trailer as a gift. “It made it possible to get the kids to school on time since we live a mile and a half away. Now I’m totally committed to the active start to the day!”

She’s convinced that choosing active transportation to get to school, to the grocery store, to church, to meetings, and to run other errands is the way to stay fit. “If you can do the active transportation thing, exercise just becomes part of your daily routine.”

Until two years ago, Ellen’s zeal for active transportation focused on her own family. But after attending a Seattle School District workshop which Feet First organized on Safe Routes to School, she came back energized to start her own Safe & Active Routes to School program at Laurelhurst Elementary.

As a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) board member, Ellen immediately recognized how her PTA could be invested in the idea. “Safe Routes to School programs hit three major components of PTA goals. It promotes health and physical activity, issues of safety around the school environment, and is a natural way to foster school community. That’s fundamentally what PTAs are all about.” She set to work as a cycling and pedestrian advocate in her children’s elementary school and began organizing parents through her PTA connections.

Ellen’s activism has paid off. Laurelhurst Elementary has seen a 75% increase in active transportation over the course of this past year. There are noticeably fewer cars during drop-off and pick-up times, especially during her Walk a Block, Bike to School Month, and International Walk to School Month campaigns. During the months of September and October of this year, Ellen counted between twenty and thirty-five bikes each day; three times the number of bikes parked last year.

“I hear practically every day, ‘I love what you’re doing!’ I really feel like I’ve made a difference in the community and for me that’s even more rewarding than the statistics.”
You can contact Ellen Aagaard directly to learn more about Laurelhurst Elementary School’s Safe and Active Routes to School success at ellaag@yahoo.com

No more "Paper or Plastic?"

Seattle stands on the verge of becoming the first in the nation with two forward-reaching ordinances to address plastics in our environment. On April 2, Seattle Council Chair Richard Conlin and Mayor Nickels proposed a ban on foamed polystyrene food containers (i.e. to-go containers) and a bag fee (20 cents charge for paper or plastic bags at grocery, convenience and drug stores - the big bags you take home, not the veggie/fruit bags). These two bills are being considered by City Council and a vote is expected in late July. The bills would go into effect January 1, 2009.

Plastics are a big problem in our lakes, creeks, Puget Sound and oceans. Because one-use disposable plastics such as bags, containers, and bottles are lightweight, they blow around on our roads and sidewalks and ultimately get washed out to our waterways. Unfortunately, plastics don’t biodegrade, they just break up into tinier and tinier bits. Out in the Pacific Ocean, a huge swirling mass of plastics bits was discovered by the Algalita Marine Foundation in the late 90s. The North Pacific Gyre - essentially a huge eddy in the middle of the northern ocean - acts like a toilet that never flushes. The tiny plastic bits float at the surface or just below the surface (some are neutrally buoyant). As discovered in recent trawling, the density of these bits in the gyre has more than doubled in the past 10 years.

San Francisco, Oakland, Portland OR and a number of other cities have already banned foamed polystyrene food containers. What is unique about Seattle’s effort is that it will require that compostable-only alternatives be phased in by July 2010.

The groups working on this issue in Seattle include: BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag), Foam Free Seattle, People For Puget Sound , Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, WA Toxics Coalition, Earth Ministry, Seattle Audubon, Seattle Rainforest Action Group, Piney Eco-Village, Piney-Greenwood Climate Action Now, Sustainable Ballard, Sustainable West Seattle, and WA PIRG.

What you can do:

Attend the Public Hearing:
July 8, 2008 at 7:00 pm (sign in at 6:30 to comment)
City Council Chambers
Second Floor
City Hall
600 4th Ave, Seattle

For more information: www.foamfreeseattle.org

Or you can contact Heather Trim at People For Puget Sound (206 382-7007 or htrim@pugetsound.org).